I was a loyal Cakewalk customer all the way from when the software came on floppy disks all the way up to Sonar 4 Producer. It was then that I ditched the software and its yearly updates due to the competition offering more of what I wanted in a sequencer. Oh, and some crappy customer service incidents. Software updates since then have barely tempted me to come crawling back, but the latest, Sonar 8, looks to have some nice new features.
Create Digital Music has the details on Sonar 8, including many of the new additions like easier recording, improved performance, and some new plugins. I don’t make beat-based music, but the new Beatscaper looks like fun. My beloved Samplitude has an excellent transient shaper plug, and now Sonar is keeping up with the neighbors with their addition, Transient Shaper. The new TL-64 Tube Leveler also seems like a nice addition.
For sample junkies, Dimension Pro comes free with the upgrade, weighing in at 8GB. It includes Garritan Pocket Orchestra. I’m probably most interested in TruePianos Amber Module a selection from the half-modeled half-sampled TruePianos VSTi plug. Guitar Rig 3 LE also comes free for those that dig digital guitar effects.
All this stuff is great, Cakewalk. But in all of that, nothing listed here is valuable than mouse wheel left-to-right scrolling or one button to bounce all VSTs automatically to new tracks, seperated by midi channel. I’d rather have workflow improvements than all of these plugins. Seriously, bring me one-touch automatic bouncing of all active VSTi to new tracks, and I’m back.
